Revolution

Don't want no short people? That might be fine for Randy Newman, but don't tell it to the York Revolution. The Atlantic League club is conducting what could be called Eddie Gaedel Version 2.0. During its spring training this week, the Revolution has invited Dave Flood to camp. Flood, who formerly worked for the Tampa Bay Rays, is 3 feet 2. The idea was sparked by research in a book by television producer Todd Gallagher, Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan, who touts the effectiveness of having a pinch hitter basically guaranteed to walk every time he comes to the plate.

Tens of thousands joined a demonstration by Buddhist monks through the streets of the city formerly known as Rangoon yesterday, in a stirring show of dissent against the generals' regime that has turned the once placid Burma into the authoritarian nightmare now called Myanmar. Last night, the government issued a warning to the monks' superiors that they must desist from further agitation, but it's unlikely to have much effect. The security forces have been conspicuously absent so far, which may be an ominous sign in a country where the last big demonstrations, in 1988, were brutally suppressed - or it may be a sign of uncertainty at the top. China appears to hold the key. It has been the regime's biggest supporter, and is clearly intent on exploiting Myanmar's significant gas and oil resources.

A NEW BOOK by best-selling author Susan Faludi argues that the American man is dog-paddling in a sea of angst, wandering lost and lonely in a world that has usurped his traditional role as hard-working breadwinner and head of household, but has bestowed no new role in exchange. In short, he no longer knows who he is.Ms. Faludi's book is called "Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man," and behind the phallic pun of its graceless title, it makes a good point. Feminism has blurred the roles of men and women.

In 1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn startled the world with the publication of "The Gulag Archipelago." This huge work, based on interviews and reminiscences, documented the Soviet slave labor system from 1918 to 1956. No other statement, with the possible exception of Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 20th Communist Party Congress report, "The Personality Cult and Its Consequences," had its impact. In effect, it destroyed forever any illusion that Soviet communism was anything less than the most vicious form of totalitarianism.

WASHINGTON -- The violence that broke out at the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle was deplorable and inexcusable. It also grabbed attention, sadly enough, in ways that peaceful demonstrations had failed to do.John F. Kennedy once said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."The "battle in Seattle" was no revolution, nor is the WTO the "world government" that its harshest critics say it is. But the WTO has been as arrogantly undemocratic as any oligarchy, which my dictionary defines as "government by the few," and arrogance invites unrest.

At 8 o'clock this evening, Turner Network Television, which coyly designates itself "The Best Movie Studio on Television," will broadcast a two-hour adaptation of George Orwell's "Animal Farm." If you are getting married or being launched into space at that moment, rest easy: Seven "encores" are scheduled over the next two weeks.TNT's publicity declares this "the most ambitious film ever made for television." Not only that, TNT also proclaims that the film "is destined to become the most important television event of the year."

The revolution began with a poet, a barber and a motley crew of Eastport residents conspiring over a couple of beers in a secret meeting room on the second floor of the neighborhood watering hole.From that gathering at Marmaduke's stemmed a full-fledged Eastport revolt, a dramatic secession from Annapolis a year ago with cannons blasting, re-enactors charging and the friendly kidnapping of Mayor Dean L. Johnson -- leader of the stodgy "those people" from the other side of the Spa Creek Bridge.

Welcome to the Revolution -- 21st-century style.Time travelers storm Ben Franklin's house, then dash down a cobblestone alley swept up in the frenzy of a pack of 1770's freedom fighters primed to battle British redcoats.Vivid 50-foot projected images and high-tech tricks brighten the nighttime sky. Muskets crack, cannons boom and the words of Franklin, John Q. Adams and Thomas Jefferson echo through the nation's most historic square mile in Philadelphia's Independence National Historic Park.

THE BEAUTY of the the Islamic revolution in Iran 20 years ago, like the Communist revolution in Cuba 20 years earlier, was that it allowed opponents to escape. In exile, millions opposed it ineffectually. Pent up at home, they would have caused trouble. The remaining population was more docile. The balance of the country tilted toward the minority regime.The students demonstrating for the past week in Tehran, suppressed and some killed by tyrants afraid of them, know only the education and government provided by the Islamic Revolution.

NEW YORK -- More than color and line explode off the paintings collected in the final gallery of the Whitney Museum's mammoth survey of American art during this century's first 50 years. Self-confidence leaps from the canvases too.It's a great irony. For years, few Americans accepted the abstract expressionist painters -- names like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning -- whose works were celebrated in the recent Whitney exhibit as the culmination of the nation's artistic maturation.

Citing personal reasons, former Orioles catcher Chris Hoiles is stepping down as manager of the York (Pa.) Revolution, a position he has held since before the club's inaugural 2007 season, team officials announced Wednesday. Hoiles, a member of the Orioles Hall of Fame who played in Baltimore from 1989 to 1998, guided York to the independent Atlantic League playoffs last season. "This is one of the toughest decisions I've had to make," Hoiles said in a statement. "I have appreciated the opportunity to join the York community and assist in building the Revolution from the ground up. My family has grown very fond of York and of Revolution fans who supported us during our three seasons here.

BELA KIRALY, 97 A Hungarian revolution leader Bela Kiraly, one of the military leaders of Hungary's short-lived anti-Soviet revolution in 1956, has died, the Hungarian government said. The daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet reported that Mr. Kiraly died Saturday morning in Budapest. In 1952, he was sentenced to death on trumped-up conspiracy charges by Hungary's Stalinist regime. The October 1956 revolution, aimed at overthrowing the communist regime, lasted less than two weeks before it was crushed.

Every revolution needs a unifying symbol, and members of Iran's opposition movement now have theirs. That was one dumb sniper who took out the young woman millions now know as Neda. Or was he? No one seems to know the identity of the rooftop shooter who pierced Neda's heart with a bullet Saturday. Was he a Basij sniper, as some witnesses have reported? Was it a mistake? Or did the shooter see an opportunity to create a necessary martyr? The thought is inescapable that the beautiful Neda Agha Soltan might have been selected from the crowd not to scare away protesters, but to unite them.

Take government back from fat-cats As usual, The Baltimore Sun gave greater voice to the liberals than to supporters of the tea party protests in its forum "Readers speak out on the tea party protests" (letters, April 20). But what those who complained that the tea parties were Republican- and Fox News-inspired contrivances aimed at the Obama administration fail to understand is that these protests are grass-roots reactions to excessive government spending, which is bloating our already-too-large government with absolutely no plan to repay our deficit.

Don't want no short people? That might be fine for Randy Newman, but don't tell it to the York Revolution. The Atlantic League club is conducting what could be called Eddie Gaedel Version 2.0. During its spring training this week, the Revolution has invited Dave Flood to camp. Flood, who formerly worked for the Tampa Bay Rays, is 3 feet 2. The idea was sparked by research in a book by television producer Todd Gallagher, Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan, who touts the effectiveness of having a pinch hitter basically guaranteed to walk every time he comes to the plate.

YouTube. MySpace. iPod. CareerBuilder. Two words fused together with a capital letter in the middle: The construction seems like it has been standard form all our lives. And yet, as Andrew Lih describes in his book that comes out today, The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia, so-called CamelCase was the way computer programmers designated topics that would be linked together on the Internet. And it became the technical underpinning for Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia that launched in 2001, about the time the commercial world adopted the spelling quirk to name companies and products.

In April, after the Senate, buckling under the threat of a presidential veto, failed to pass a law that would close a loophole and allow women to sue for equal pay, an outraged Sen. Barbara Mikulski took the floor to speak. "Many people have been mesmerized by the John Adams miniseries," said the Maryland Democrat. "I like John Adams, but I really like Abigail. "While John Adams was down in Philadelphia writing the Declaration of Independence and laying the groundwork for the Constitution and inventing America, Abigail Adams wrote her husband from the farm - while raising the four children and keeping the family going.

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. - The New England Revolution, playing with mostly reserves in its U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal match last night, did not resemble a first-place team in Major League Soccer's Eastern Division. Crystal Palace Baltimore, a low-budget team that competes in the United Soccer League Second Division, did not play like a heavy underdog with an inferiority complex. Having already knocked off one MLS team a week ago, a confident Crystal Palace squad had an opportunity to dethrone the defending Cup champions.

It's not surprising that fans voted Brooks Robinson the best defensive third baseman ever in balloting conducted by Rawlings last year. What might surprise some is that the Orioles great will accept his all-time Gold Glove in York, Pa., instead of in Baltimore, the town in which he dazzled at the hot corner. He is the only living honoree who will accept his award at a minor league park. The decision might further the perception of an uncomfortable relationship between the Orioles and one of their most beloved former players.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., many will reflect on the fires that erupted across America. Gone are the red embers of urban rage, replaced by the smoldering ashes of perpetually bombed-out neighborhoods. Hard-hit Baltimore provides a window on the legacy of Dr. King's assassination. When the riot was over, six people would be dead, 700 injured and 4,500 arrested. Total property damage was estimated in millions of dollars. But no one has calculated the cost of the effects of Dr. King's assassination in diminished opportunities to the successive generations of Baltimoreans (of all races)